Miracles can happen on any size wave - Radim Malinic

I like to read advertising books and watch movies whenever I’m stuck or am looking for inspiration for any project. That is why I took up this book.

Drawn from real life experiences, it is divided into three parts work, creativity and mind and covers a wide range of topics that a creative can relate to. Things like all those late nights, doubts about work, dealing with clients, creative blocks, finding time for self initiated projects.

The part I most enjoyed reading was the bit about setting challenges and trying to go beyond what is required from you. I'd like to quote a poem from the book that spoke to me. (The West-End Show)

Shine a light.

A stream of intoxicating emotions

swells the veins of ambition,

stories penned, stories told,

muffled words.

An intoxicating stream of words

swells the veins of emotions,

stories told, stories lost,

muffled ambition.

I had a wonderful opportunity to meet Radim over a coffee and ask him a few questions about him and his book.

1) I would like to know a little about the book and when you finally decided to do this.

Answer: I have a habit of writing ideas and thoughts on the iPhone notes. I realised all these thoughts were taking up a form of a content for a book. It took me 4 years to come up will all the matter but only 7 days to refine and put it into chapters.

A lot of research was involved about the other books on amazon, on how people sold their books and what the reviews said. I had already decided the title of the book long back - book of ideas. What took time was trying to come up with the half title - ‘A journal of creative direction and graphic design’ which had to support the simple and straight forward title.

I wrote the book to appeal to all types of creatives. I’ve talked about my observations and experiences from many years of working in the creative industry.

2) Which is your favourite chapter in the book?

Answer: Miracles can happen on any size wave. The reference comes from surfing, when you try to ride the wave and fail, you get up again and when it clicks, you feel a sense of tremendous achievement. Similarly, when you start on a brief and come to an epiphany, it makes you want to start on a new brief. This gets addictive.

This is one of my favourite parts because it is about designers/creatives having the power of being an integral part in the success of the clients and brands - no matter how big or small they are.

3) Do you have a technique to judge your own idea? How do you decide on the final idea?

Answer: The more you question your idea, put it out there and get people’s option on it. Advertising is done so that it appeals to the audiences. If they say its bad, and if they don’t like it what’s the point anyway?

Also, as a designers/ creatives, we all have a gut feeling about the ideas. If you not sure about the idea, it simply is not good.

4) What kind of projects interest you? And what kinds of clients do you like to work with?

Answer: Client seems like a cold word, I see them more like collaborators. I like to work along with them rather than for them. I like to work with people to whom I can form a connect. They eventually become friends and there’s a strong trust and communication throughout the whole project rather than just at the start and end of it.

It is essential to find time for self initiated projects. Apart from that, to find the kinds of projects that interest me, I ask myself a few questions. Can I do my best on this project? Is this something I believe in? (I’d like to quote a line from the book) Work for your soul and success will follow.

5) One section in my blog is - Learn from my mistakes. What is one common advice you’d like to share from your experiences?

Answer: Take the time off. It is easy to get stuck in the work. For creativity, it its important to grow, by having more breaks and experiences. Travel, discover and learn, grown in space and distance. If you use the same ideas and process you can’t expect new and exciting results.

This article contains a lot of bloopers but they are very fractional compared to the amount of complete content present in the book. (There’s gonna be a part 2. Voilà!)

Each chapter is accompanied by few pieces of Radim’s work, and that is a delight to follow. The amount of passion and handwork put into coming up with the book is transparent. I’d recommend all to get their hands on a copy, its worth it.

Also, check out www.brandnu.co.uk/work/